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Aussie inventor in $537m Microsoft damages win

An Australian inventor is set to reap the lion's share of a
$US388 million ($537 million) damages award from Microsoft after a
US jury found the software giant stole his technology.

Ric Richardson, who divides his time between Sydney and
California, is the founder of Uniloc, which sued Microsoft in 2003
for violating its patent relating to technology designed to deter
software piracy.

The company alleged Microsoft earned billions of dollars by
using the technology in its Windows XP and Office programs.

Last week, a jury in Rhode Island found Microsoft violated the
patent and told Microsoft to pay the company $US388 million,
the fifth-largest patent jury award in US history, according to
data compiled by Bloomberg.

Four of the six largest patent verdicts have been against
Microsoft, but the Uniloc damages fee only amounts to about eight
days of profit for the company.

Richardson reportedly came up with the idea for the patented
technology during his former career as a sound equipment programmer
for bands ranging from INXS to John Denver. The job required him to
use pricey specialist software but there was no way to trial the
software before buying it, which pushed many musicians into using
pirated software.

Before getting into software development, Richardson, with his
brother, invented the "Shade Saver" cords used to keep sunglasses
attached to a wearer's neck. Profits from this invention were used
to fund his Uniloc venture.

Richardson stepped down as a director of Uniloc in January this
year, documents lodged with the Australian Securities and
Investments Commission show.

He has sold some of his Uniloc shares in recent years but
confirmed in an email that he still has "one of the larger
individual shareholdings". It is impossible to determine his exact
holding as Uniloc is a private company.

Richardson would not say much more, saying the case was still
making its way through the courts.

He was less restrained on Twitter, announcing: "Dear fiends and
family... its official. We won the case with Microsoft... and a
$388 mill verdict."

The jurors have already found that Microsoft wilfully and
intentionally infringed Uniloc's patent, but the company is
awaiting a final decision by the judge, who, Bloomberg reports,
could increase the award three-fold.

Richardson's patent, one of many under his name, relates to work
he did in the early 1990s and covers a software registrations
system that allows software makers to create try-before-you-buy
versions of their work.

Once users buy the software they get a registration key that
unlocks the full featured version of the software.

Uniloc claimed Richardson showed a copy of his software to
Microsoft in 1993 but Microsoft did not license it, instead
developing its own almost identical version and incorporating it
into its products from 1997 or 1998.

Microsoft said that its system works differently from Uniloc's
and that Uniloc's patent was obvious.

The company has said it is very disappointed with the jury
verdict and will ask the court to overturn the verdict.

In 2006 a different judge ruled in favour of Microsoft, but this
was overturned by an appeals court, which argued the case shouldn't
have been decided without hearing from a jury.

Other inventions patented by Richardson include the ability to
swap batteries on laptops without shutting down, an open standard
for online forums and the "smog eradicator" - an on-board carbon
scrubber for petroleum-fuelled vehicles.